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Biomedical subjects

M L Tuggy

Publications and source records attributed to M L Tuggy.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Telemark skiing injuries.

Telemark skiing has become increasingly popular over the past 5 years. Telemark skiing poses unique risks when compared to alpine skiing, because of different equipment, technique, and varied skiing environments. A retrospective survey of telemark skiers was conducted in Western Washington in 1994 to obtain skier information on ski habits, demographics, frequency and types of injury, and equipment used at time of injury. During the 5 month survey period, 118 (63%) of 187 surveys distributed at 7 sites were returned. The overall injury rate was comparable to alpine skiing injury rates at 10.7/1000 skier days. Less experienced skiers and women had higher injury rates, 20/1000 and 13.1/1000 skier days, respectively. The predominant injury sites were knee (41%), hip (13%), and thumb (8%). The knee injuries sustained by telemark skiers appear to be less severe than alpine skiers, with less duration of disability and lower surgical rates. An association was found between the use of plastic reinforced boots and significant ligamentous knee injuries when compared to skiers with leather boots (p < 0.01, chi 2 = 5.43).

Adult↗

Injury risk factors among telemark skiers.

We performed a population survey of telemark skiers over two ski seasons to determine specific risk factors for injury. The survey inquired about the skier's sex, experience, equipment used, injuries, and number of days skied in each season. The respondents completed the surveys whether or not they were injured while skiing. We received 677 responses from telemark skiing clubs, with 19,962 skier-days of data. The number of self-reported injuries was 178, for an overall self-reported injury rate of 8.9 per 1000 skier-days. Knee injuries (N = 48) were the most common injury (27%), followed by thumb (N = 32, 18%) and shoulder (N = 21, 12%) injuries. Specific risk factors for injury were identified with multivariate regression and survival analysis. The skill level of the skier had a significant injury-sparing effect, as did the use of plastic telemark boots. The protective effect of the plastic boots was likely due to the increased stability they provided compared with traditional leather boots. There were fewer knee injuries with the recently available releasable bindings for telemark skis. Sex and age had no significant impact on injury rates in this study population. As all reported deaths associated with telemark sking were due to environmental hazards, skiers must continue to pay close attention to these hazards in the backcountry.

Adolescent↗

Virtual reality flexible sigmoidoscopy simulator training: impact on resident performance.

BACKGROUND: Flexible sigmoidoscopy, a core skill for the primary care physician, requires learned hand-eye skills that can be difficult to master during residency training. With recent advances in virtual reality simulation technology, simulated flexible sigmoidoscopes are available to family medicine residents for training before their initial and subsequent live patient examinations. The purpose of the study was to determine whether a virtual reality flexible sigmoidoscope simulator would improve the hand-eye skills and various performance parameters in a live patient. METHODS: Residents were assigned to a control (n = 5) or experimental group (n = 5) in which the experimental group trained on a virtual reality sigmoidoscopy simulator before their first sigmoidoscopies on live patient volunteers. After the initial live patient sigmoidoscopies, both control and experimental groups trained on the simulator so that it was possible to evaluate presimulator and postsimulator training effects on live patient performance and to compare speed and skill between the groups at different levels of training. RESULTS: Training on the virtual reality simulator produced substantial improvements in examination times and hand-eye skill measures. After 6 to 10 hours of training on the simulator, the experimental group achieved significantly faster insertion times to 30 cm (119 versus 357 sec, P = 0.03), 40 cm (211 versus 518 sec, P = 0.03), and a shorter mean length of examination (323 versus 654 sec, P = 0.01). There was also significant improvement of hand-eye skill measures of the experimental group in directional errors (1.6 versus. 8.6, P < 0.01), percentage of colon visualized (79 versus 45 percent, P = 0.02), and viewing quality of examination when compared with the control group's initial performance on live patients. Resident survey findings after the study confirmed the trainee's perception of the benefit of the simulator training. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows the value of virtual reality simulator training for accelerating the development of the hand-eye skills to perform adequate sigmoidoscopy.

Clinical Competence↗